different AREA code than her own for her neighbor who lives three houses down the street!

It's bad enough when they take one area code (geographic area) and split it into two (redefining the geographic area). Now we have overlay area codes - that's when all the numbers within one area code have been used up (!) and all new numbers (telephone, fax, cell, pager) are assigned a different area code. The result is that people within the same household may have different area codes.

Practically speaking, the advantage to an area code split is that you can dial within the area code using only seven digits (US) eg, 555-xxxx. With the area code overlay, you have to dial 10 digits at all times, eg, yyy-555-xxxx.